Water Parsnip (Sium suave)

Water parsnip is a perennial wetland plant native to North America. It likes to grow in wetlands such as marshes, ditches, wet prairies, sedge meadows, and along ponds and lakes. Here it is pictured in a wet prairie in Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. This plant is commonly hard to identify because it looks similar to many other species in the Apiaceae family such as water and poison hemlock (Cicuta spp.). A way that I distinguish it from the hemlocks is that the leaves of water parsnip are lighter green in color and wider. Water parsnip can survive in inundated conditions. It can be fully submerged in water especially during the springtime when the water levels are high.